CDP Ltd.: Sound Design with a Difference~ MAC OS X and Windows ~

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Free Download: CDP Core Sound Transformation Software

A free download of our core sound transformation & editing software and documentation is now available. It is being released under a GNU Lesser General Public Licence (LGPL) and includes our full Release 7 package, the Sound Loom GUI (MAC/PC) and the Soundshaper Lite GUI (PC). Visit the CDP System tab for more information. The two existing CDP Tutorial Workshops will also be a free download  for these please click on the Workshops tab.

The Silver celebration

This free download marks our Silver Jubilee (plus a bit) and brings to a certain culmination our original intention to create in-depth sound transformation tools and make them affordable and available to as many composers as possible. It marks a transition to an online public domain culture and to CDP being formally constituted as a social enterprise. For more information about the thinking that lies behind this change, please see our CDP History page (2011 onwards).

A Sharing Community

The vast majority of the software has been written by Trevor Wishart, documented by Archer Endrich and maintained by Richard Dobson with help from Trevor re technical details. It is their willingness to share their 2½ decades of work which has made this possible. We hope that the free download will stimulate the further evolution of a sharing community of users.

Online User Forum

A CDP online user forum has been set up by Simon Kunath. We hope that this forum will provide a means for users to ask questions about the software and get answers from other users. It also provides a way of reporting possible software bugs. Software updates will be posted periodically.

Optional Purchases

CDP still needs some income, so some items will need to be purchased. The Soundshaper Pro GUI remains a for-sale item in order to support its continued maintenance. The same is also true of ProcessPack, soon to be available via the CDP website, in this case so that some income can be generated that will feed back into CDP. These and other optional purchases are listed on the Options tab. We are hoping that the free download of the main package will make it easier for users to acquire these additional items.

Support Packages

The free download does away with the previous licensing arrangements, except for Soundshaper Pro which will continue to be licensed based on number of installations. Instead we are considering to offer user support packages, particularly to educational institutions, for those users who would like to have direct access to CDP personnel and to have bug fixes posted to them right away. We invite user feedback about this possibility.

CDP Development

Rajmil Fischman will be coordinating future development of CDP software. We aim to promote 3rd party development in general and at this point have as a key objective putting the CDP source code into library format. We will call these the CDP-Wishart Libraries as Trevor has been designing most of our software since the early 1990's. It is going to take a great deal of work and some considerable funding to create proper libraries, and we will keep you informed of progress.

Education

Meanwhile we are looking towards education-sector projects to bring our multi-disciplinary expertise into schools and colleges. Initially, we are focusing on 'Sound & Music Computing in Schools' (SMCS). This is partly a response to the promotion of more in-depth computer science in schools, to which we feel we can contribute as programmers and users of sound design tools  tools that are now used in many colleges and universities. Our approach will be multi-disciplinary with the special aim to rejoin the Arts and the Sciences, something that we do every day in music technology. Richard Dobson has prepared an initial Website for this Project at http://people.bath.ac.uk/masrwd/smcs/smcshome.html. We feel that it is now time to consider more directly how we can share this expertise with the wider community.

Donations Welcome

The new set of CDP Ltd directors are working hard to re-imagine CDP in an online public domain context. Meanwhile, we will be seeking new forms of income, and will welcome any donations to help establish the emerging social enterprise and to help fund current projects..

Additional Information

Interview with Trevor Wishart, key creative programmer for CDP. He was awarded the Giga-Herz grand prize in 2008, and is here interviewed by ZKM Radio.

The Options tab is where you can purchase Soundshaper Pro and a number of other optional items.

Visit the Links tab for information about other free software complementary to CDP.

The official name of CDP is now 'Composers Desktop Project Ltd' and it has a bespoke Articles that define it as a social enterprise. It is registered at Companies House, company number 8733839. The Directors are listed on the Contacts page. Based in the UK, CDP is an international network of composers and programmers guided by a vision of amazing sonic possibilities and how they can be woven into the fabric of music. We have been working together since 1986. About CDP and its approach.